EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
The Music of the Beatles
John Covach, University of Rochester
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Organizing the Biography Notes taken on February 11, 2014 by Edward Tanguay |
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members
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John Lennon (1940-1980)
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guitar, lead vocals
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Paul McCartney (1942-)
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bass vocals
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George Harrison (1943-2001)
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lead guitar vocals
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died of lung cancer
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Ringo Starr (1940-)
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original name: Richard Starkey
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drummer
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important to note: their date of birth
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when they began to be popular 1963 in UK, 1964 in the US, they were only 20-23 years old
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other people
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Pete Best
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original drummer
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dismissed for "being a loner"
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Stuart Sutcliffe
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original bass guitar, not very good
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left the band to pursue his career as an artist
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one of John's art school friends
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in Hamburg, met Astrid Kirchherr
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Astrid Kirchherr
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photographer
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responsible for the early Beatles look
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half in light, half in shade
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George Martin (1926-)
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Beatles producer
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there from beginning
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till end except for one album
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much older, more of a school master, or the adult-in-the-room person
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Brian Epstein (1934-1967)
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Beatles manager
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Allen Klein
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manager took over at end of 60s
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Paul McCartney didn't want him to be the manager
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Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall
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roadies, helped load gear
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Neil went on to run Apple Records for them
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school friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison
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Dick James
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responsible for early publishing deal at beginning of career
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places
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Liverpool
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while music industry was in London, Liverpool was a musical outpost, a port city
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the city was prosperous but not seen as necessarily as cultured as London so there were issues concerning them being from Liverpool
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Hamburg
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from August 1960 to December 1962
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where they learned their craft
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played in clubs
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companies
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Parlophone
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Beatles main record label
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EMI
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parent company of Parlophone
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Capitol
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U.S. label where Beatles records were released
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also Vee Jay and Swan labels
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organizing the music
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important: there is a difference between British and American releases of Beatles music
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US albums that were never released in Britain
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Capitol would slice tunes off of the British releases
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in the 1980s, the CDs were organized according to the UK releases
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list
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11 EMI albums
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1 EP (Magical Mystery Tour)
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Yellow Submarine
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singles that do not appear on EMI albums: Past Masters
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other recordings
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Live at the BBC
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how the Beatles sounded live in the early days
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Anthology (bootleg)
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musical composition
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which songs were:
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John's songs
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Paul's songs
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George's songs
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there aren't many songs that John and Paul wrote together
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John and Paul just helped each other out a bit
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George wrote by himself mostly
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used the recording studio in increasingly creative ways
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other instruments work their way into the texture
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lyrics
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front innocent, naive teen love to themes that are more philosophical and avant garde
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ambition
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always trying to push the envelope
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learned and became experts in the pop craft year after year